Floor treating composition



Patented Jan. 3, 1950 noon TitEATiNc oomosr'rron r'rtingofiniiiutenelgcant.

so Drawing. npplicationbeceinber 1 944, Serial No. 562521 1 Claim-1101. toi et) I The invention relates to'a 'metlriodjan'dmeans for conditioning a floor surface to :provide; for the use of the floor alternatively for ballroom dancing 'andgymnasium activities.

Anobject of the invention is to provide such a treatment for a waxed and polished dancing floor asto' destroy the generally frictionless'g'laze Another object is to 1 provide a particularly efficient composition for application to temporarily convert a dance floor "into a gymnasium floor without destroying the ability of the'floor coat ing to again provide a dance floor surface.

The invention possesses other: objectsand feas tures ofadvantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will ;be set forth or be apparent in'theg; following description thereof. As is well known, many halls or gymnasium's',

have theirIfloors used alternatively for dancing and gymnastic activities. When used for dancing, a floor isusually covered witna compacted and polished basic coating of wax, or other suitable material, for facilitating the easiest and On the other most enjoyable dancin thereon. hand, a polished dance floor is not generally suitable or safe for use by persons running-there oyer, as in the playing, 'of -floorjgames; and-it a here ofor been cu tom to t ce t n measures for increasing the frictional coefficient th t ge Surface t ad eewhic stfac l r tates the safe playing of floor games thereon; said measures have generally involved the removal of the dance floor coating before or after each use of the floor for gymnastic purposes, or the addition of a gritty substance to the floor surface.

Essentially, the device of my invention comprises the application to the surface of a polished dance floor of a material which so modifies the physical condition of the floor coating providing the polished surface as to destroy the glaze of said surface and otherwise increase its frictional coefficient to such a degree as to render the floor safely usable for floor games and other gymnastic activities. The applied material is also of such a nature that its effect disappears after a controllable period of time during which the floor may be used for gymnastic purposes, and thereby makes possible a repolishing of the basis floor coating to again provide a suitably glazed dance floor surface thereon.

For use with usual floor-coating preparations Theminer'al spiritso'f'the composition constitutes hich pe with. a m r @1 lez da l r g e such. p iii n n -e 3 Wages .en t e. like. l eie 1 291115 1 irfiatrial which isgenerally yolati le whereby i pioli ed coating eneur only, so'l'long t er hti mai r rem n .IIO i' much of the modifying material is 12 "a11y,ap-

s. marinate qbmpgsii bari e. idthe indi'cated proportions by volume: I

azmajor part thereof and preferably comprises an odorlessnydrmc'arbon liquid :having azzrla tivelyrlow vapor pressure" andfa' boiling range "of: g about .150210' 225 i degrees centigracie",:" while ttn! lubricating oil oft the 'compositionwould comprise-J aelight .oil .of mineral origin; The roily ingredi ents. including; the petroleum jelly; are dissolved.

andreyenlmdispersed:in themineralspirits..;.- 2

An application of the aforesaid, or similarly acting, conditioning composition is preferably made by use of an atomizing spray gun to prm vide a uniform and very light coating of only minute droplets of the composition upon a floor coating to be conditioned. The composition so deposited on the floor surface will penetrate the floor coating, by combined solution and capiliary actions, to modify its physical structure, the effect apparently involving some coagulation and/or granulating of the more or less crystallized material of the compacted and polished coating. and rendering the coating surface very slightly viscous. The composition is never applied in such an amount as to liquify the coating which must not become wet enough for its possible wiping off; in accordance with the nature and thickness of a particular floor coating to be conditioned and the time for which the treatment is to endure, only one-half to three pints of the above composition is required to ictionlessa s H med a-- cat on of .ther hysical structure of anoriginally pi a as will 'onaiticn the" coating to n e'fdsired. t e coating liluid f "iii il imt ei i ingre'dient's apprdiimately M Per: cent which are neither volatile nor wax solvents, re-

main in and on the coating when the volatile mineral spirits have evaporated and are arranged to hinder a dissolving of the wax in the mineral spirits while changing the physical structure of the coating, to then cooperate with the wax'to function as a retardent of evaporation until the evaporation of the mineral spirits is completed, and to finally act as filler materials in the body of the modified coating. When the evaporation of the mineral spirits is completed, the remaining floor coating composition may be reconditioned for dancing use by polishing it in its place, with or without the addition of more floor wax material; the remaining ingredients of the conditioning composition are merged into the coating structure. Experience has shown that the present composition functions equally well for its purposes when applied to compacted and polished coatings of various organic and/or mineral waxes, 'suc h as beeswax, oeresin wax,'paraflin wax, and other waxy coatings usable on dance floors.

In the use. of the present floor-conditioning composition with different basic dance floor coatings and under different temperature conditions, it has bee'nfound that an application of the composition should be effected in from sixteen to twenty-four hours ahead of the time for using the floor for gymnastic activities, whereby to provide for a complete and uniform dispersal and action of the composition through the coating. The eifect of an appropriate application of the com position will generally endure for from sixty to seventy-two hours after the floor-conditioning is completed. It has been found that the period during which the special conditioning of the floor coating: continues may be varied somewhat by changing the relative proportions of the mineral spirits and the linseed oil; an increase in the proportion of mineral spirits will decrease the period of special conditioning; and vice versa. On the other hand,- additional dance wax may be applied to, and polished on, a floor treated with the pres- 4 ent composition at any time; this makes it possible to use the floor for dancing immediately following games, if desired.

It is to be particularly noted that the present method of temporarily conditioning a waxed dance floor for use with floor games, and particularly basket-ball and tennis and volley-bah and other games involving running, by the participants, does not involve a cleaning off of the original floor coating before and/or after each gymnastic use thereof, such being generally deleterious to a floor surface; by use of the present type of composition, in the manner taught, a dance floor coating may be conditioned and used alternately for gymnastic and dancing activities for many times without replacement. On the other hand, the damage to a floor which may be occasioned by applying gritty materials to a dance floor coating thereon for adapting it to floorame use is also avoided.

From the foregoing description, the advantages of the present floor-conditioning method and means will be readily understood by those skilled in the art to which to my invention appertains. While I have described the principles of application and a particular composition for use in carrying out my invention, I desire to have it understood that the present disclosure is primarily illustrative, and that such changes and developments may be made, when desired, as fall within the scope of the following claim.

I claim:

A new article of manufacture for use to increase the frictional coeflicient of floor wax coating, comprising about seventy-five parts by volume of mineral spirits, about twenty parts by volume of raw linseed oil, two parts by volume of petroleum jelly, two parts by volume of light petroleum lubricating oil, and one part by volume of cotton-seed oil.

IRVING C. ELLIOTT. 4

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

